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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Gone Girl

GONE GIRL directed by David Fincher, written by Gillian Flynn based on her novel, with Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens. A 20th Century Fox release. 149 minutes. Opens Friday (October 3). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN


It’s a testament to David Fincher’s skill as a filmmaker that he makes something as complex as Gone Girl feel so effortless.

Gillian Flynn’s 2012 novel is a juggernaut of plot and perspective, playing with narration (and narrative) to expand a drama about a woman’s disappearance in a small Missouri town into a psychological hall-of-mirrors thriller about trust, fidelity and status.

The movie, also scripted by Flynn, does all that and more. The slippery narrative structure (which initially alternates between the immediate experience of Nick Dunne and the diary of his missing wife, Amy) is still there, as is the satirical take on the American news media.

The script is a little on the cold side, but that’s why Fincher is the perfect director. His best films – Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network – operate as clinical dissections of their subjects. When he last tried to engage his emotion chip, we ended up with The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

Fortunately, Gone Girl doesn’t have room for emotion. It’s too caught up in the process of what happens to Nick’s life when Amy goes missing on the morning of their fifth anniversary.

This is where the actors come in. Rosamund Pike is a great choice for the unknowable Amy, who remains present onscreen thanks to her diary entries, and Ben Affleck is a flat-out brilliant call as Nick, who never seems more unlikeable and calculating than when he’s trying to ingratiate himself to someone.

For a decade, I’ve heard people say this about Affleck I think it’s just something about the way he smiles. Gone Girl turns that odd quality into a character flaw, making us question why Nick seems the least genuine when he most needs to be.

The rest of the cast is great, too. Kim Dickens and Carrie Coon offer complex support as a detective investigating Amy’s disappearance and Nick’s twin sister, Margot. In a smaller role as Amy’s high-school boyfriend, Neil Patrick Harris does some nifty stuff in the margins. Even Tyler Perry convinces as a high-powered criminal attorney Nick enlists.

The technical aspects are top-notch. Gone Girl feels machine-tooled in the best possible way – spotless, chilly and perfect, with everything placed just so. It’s exactly what this story – and these characters – require.

normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner

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